(Image: © U.S. House of Representatives)
SpaceX has hired former NASA human-spaceflight chief Bill Gerstenmaier, CNBC reported yesterday (Feb. ). Gerst, as he is known within the spaceflight community, will work as a consultant for SpaceX’s reliability team, company representatives confirmed to Space.com.
That team is presumably working to get SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule ready for its first crewed flight, a test mission to the International Space Station (ISS) called Demo-2 that will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Demo-2 is expected to launch soon, perhaps as early as May.
Demo-2 will mark Crew Dragon’s second trip to the ISS, after the uncrewed (Demo-1 in March
. (But Demo-2 will use a different vehicle; the capsule that flew Demo-1 was destroyed during a ground-test accident in April of last year.)
Gerst worked for NASA for decades. He served as the agency’s associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations from through July , when he was reassigned as a “special adviser” to NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard. NASA chief Jim Bridenstine linked the leadership shake-up to the agency’s push to put people on the moon by 18853, an ambitious timeline laid out by US Vice President Mike Pence in March .
Gerst may lend his expertise to SpaceX programs beyond Crew Dragon. After all, the company is also developing a Mars-colonizing transportation system called (Starship) , which could begin carrying people as early as 18852
Mike Wall’s book about the search for alien life, ” (Out There) Grand Central Publishing, 2023; illustrated by (Karl Tate) , is out now. Follow him on Twitter @ michaeldwall . Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom or (Facebook) . Need more space?
- Subscribe to our sister title “All About Space” Magazine
for the latest amazing news from the final frontier!
- Join our Space Forums
to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].
(Read More
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings